The present invention relates to a vehicle rear seat and, more particularly, to a vehicle rear seat, whose rear surface carries a retainer board.
An attempt has been undertaken to develop a vehicle provided with seats of a foldable seat back type as disclosed in FIG. 6 which shows an example of a specifically arranged seat structure in its vehicle compartment. The vehicle compartment has a vehicle body floor 60 on which front seats (not shown), which functions as a driver""s seat and a driver""s assistant seat, are mounted. A first rear seat 50 is mounted rearward of the front seats, and a second rear seat 55 is mounted rearward of the first rear seat 50. The vehicle body floor 60 is continuous with a luggage floor 61 formed at an area rearward of the second rear seat 55. The first and second rear seats 50, 55 include respective seat cushions 51, 56, and respective seat backs 52, 57 which are mounted to rear edges of the respective seat cushions 51, 56, respectively. The seat backs 52, 57 have their lower ends mounted with pivot shafts 53, 58 through which the seat backs 52, 57 are pivotally supported with respective angular adjustment mechanisms (not shown) and are foldable from respective upright positions, shown by phantom lines in FIG. 6, to respective substantially horizontal fold positions shown by respective solid lines in FIG. 6. The first rear seat 50 is mounted on a seat adjuster 54, fixedly mounted on the vehicle body floor 60, for forward and rearward movements in a longitudinal direction of the vehicle. The second rear seat 55 is fixedly secured onto a stepped area 61a formed forwardly of the luggage floor 61.
With such a structure of the rear seat, when locating a luggage in an internal space in the luggage floor 61, the seat back 57 of the second rear seat 55 is folded forward to compel the same in a substantially horizontal fold position. In addition to the folding movement of the seat back 57, the seat back 52 of the first rear seat 50 is also folded forward in its fold position. Under such a condition, the first rear seat 50 is operated to slide in the forward and rearward directions using the seat adjuster 54 so as to preclude a head rest of the second rear seat 55 from being brought into abutting contact with the first rear seat 50. FIG. 6 shows such a state where both the seat backs 52, 57 of the first and second rear seats 50, 55 are folded forward to compel the rear surfaces of the seat backs 52, 57 to be aligned in substantially the same plane as the luggage floor 61. Under this circumstance, accordingly, the vehicle compartment has a continuous large internal spacing above the luggage floor 61 and the first rear seat 50, enabling various articles and an elongated luggage to be located over the luggage floor 61 and the rear surfaces of the first and second rear seats 50, 55.
Under a folded condition shown in FIG. 6, a spacing S is formed between both the rear seats 50, 55, and the luggage placed on the rear surfaces of the respective seat backs 52, 57 tends to drop onto the floor 60 through the spacing S. To cope with such a phenomenon in the related art structure, there are some instances where a retainer board 65 is mounted to the rear surface of one of the seat backs 52, 57 by means of a hinge member 66 with a view to closing the spacing S. The retainer board 65 is comprised of a structure described below in detail. That is, in a case where the retainer board 65 is mounted to the second rear seat 55, an upper end of the retainer board 65 is connected to an upper area of the rear surface of the seat back 57 by means of the hinge member 66, with a lower end of the retainer board 65 being attached to the rear surface of the seat back 57 in a detachable manner via a simple lock mechanism (not shown). On the other hand, in a case where the retainer board 65 is mounted to the rear surface of the first rear seat 50, the retainer board 65 is connected to a lower end of the rear surface of the seat back 52 of the first rear seat 50 by means of the hinge member, with the upper end of the retainer board 65 being attached to the rear surface of the seat back 52 in the detachable manner via the simple lock mechanism (not shown). Incidentally, the location of the hinge member 66, i.e. the mounting position of the retainer board 65 relative to the first and second rear seats 50, 55 may be suitably settled as an upper hinge as shown by a solid line in FIG. 6 or a lower hinge as shown by a phantom line in FIG. 6.
The aforementioned measures for the spacing between the first and second rear seats are undertaken by closing the spacing S upon unfolding the retainer board 65 by means of the upper or lower hinge member 66 to compel the retainer board 65 to be placed on the seat back 52 or 57. However, the aforementioned structure encounters various phenomena as will be described below. First, since the seat backs 52, 57 of the rear seats 50, 55 have outer appearances to be laminated with decorative covers involving the rear surfaces thereof, when mounting the retainer board 65 to the relevant seat back in a subsequent step, it has been a usual practice for a core member, such as a back frame contained in the relevant seat back, to be preliminarily mounted with a bracket for mounting the retainer board. Under such a circumstance, the presence of the decorative cover, which encloses the various component parts of the seat back, disables the location of the mounting bracket from being visually found, causing a degraded workability for fixing the retainer board 65 to the mounting bracket of the seat back via the hinge member 66 using fixtures screws. This results in an increase in the number of assembling steps required for the retainer board. In the presence of the retainer board mounted to the seat back, further, a portion of the hinge member is visible from outside and such a structure fails to provide an attractive outer appearance. In addition, it has been a usual practice for such a retainer board to be made of a plate like core material, such as plastic plate, which is covered with a bag-shaped decorative cover to provide a relatively simple structure that needs a troublesome selection for a fixture element suitable as the hinge member 66. With such a structure in the related art practice as in the structure shown in FIG. 6, further, when unfolding the retainer board 65, which is mounted to the first rear seat 50, onto the seat cushion 56 of the second rear seat 55, there is a need for the first rear seat 50 to be moved rearward using the seat adjuster 54 until the distal end of the retainer board 65 gets at the upper surface of the seat cushion 56, with a resultant degraded usage of the retainer board.
The present invention has been made with the above studies and has an object to provide a vehicle rear seat easy to be assembled while providing its attractive outer appearance and improved usage.
To achieve the above object, according to one aspect of the present invention, there is provided a vehicle rear seat comprising: a seat cushion; a seat back connected to the seat cushion and foldable from an upright position to a forwardly folded position over the seat cushion, the seat back having a body portion and a decorative cover placed over the body portion, the decorative cover having an upper decorative cover component and a rear decorative cover component; and a retainer board mounted to a rear surface of the seat back for tilting movement. The retainer board includes a core material, a decorative cover composed of one cover element and the other cover element opposing to the one cover element to enclose the core material, and a mount segment extending from the retainer board and connected to the rear decorative cover component of the seat back. The mount segment serves as a hinge to enable the retainer board to be placed in an inoperative rest position and in an operative unfold position.
Other and further features, advantages, and benefits of the present invention will become more apparent from the following description taken in conjunction with the following drawings.